Chapter 9: The Day He Was Charged
Paul called on a Tuesday morning, eleven weeks after that first night in the kitchen.
I was at my desk at work.
The office was quiet — early enough that most people hadn't arrived yet.
Rain on the windows.
Coffee going cold beside the keyboard.
"They executed the warrant this morning," Paul said.
"Daniel Marsh was taken into custody at his residence in Columbus at seven-fifteen."
I set my pen down.
"What are the charges?"
"Wire fraud, theft by deception, and one count of criminal extortion — that last one is from the threat he sent you the morning after you went to see me." A pause.
"The AG's office also connected him to four other victims in three states.
Two of them came forward after we filed.
The Ohio and Georgia cases have been reopened."
"How much total?"
"Across all victims, just over six hundred thousand dollars."
I looked out the rain-streaked window.
"The loan against the house," I said.
"What happens to that?"
"The bank has agreed to suspend enforcement pending the fraud determination.
If the criminal case proceeds as expected, the loan will be voided.
You won't lose the house."
"And Maya's money?"
"The AG's office has frozen his accounts.
There's approximately two hundred and thirty thousand in them across four accounts.
Restitution will be ordered as part of sentencing.
It won't be immediate, but Maya will be made whole."
I sat with that for a moment.
"Paul," I said.
"Thank you."
"You did the hard part," he said.
"You kept the documents.
You kept the phone.
You came to me immediately." Another pause.
"How's the family?"
"Getting there," I said.
"Good.
I'll send the formal update this afternoon."
He hung up.
I sat at my desk for a while without doing anything.
Then I called Claire.
She answered on the second ring.
I could hear from the quality of her silence that she already knew something had shifted.
"They arrested him this morning," I said.
She exhaled.
A long, slow breath that carried something I hadn't heard from her in months.
"Is it over?" she said.
"The worst of it," I said.
"The rest takes time."
"Maya's money?"
"She'll get it back.
It won't be fast, but she'll get it back."
Another silence.
Then: "I've been thinking about what I'm going to say to her.
I've written it down and crossed it out about twenty times."
"Don't write it down," I said.
"Just say it."
"What if she doesn't want to hear it?"
"Then you say it anyway and you let her decide what to do with it." I paused.
"She told me she'd talk to you.
Weeks ago.
She's been waiting for you to come to her."
A long pause.
May you like
"I didn't know that," Claire said.
"Now you do."
